Discussion

What City Were You Surprised By That Had Great Food & Variety?

There are those times when you travel to a place due to work, a wedding, or a random city/town for any given reason where you have no expectations for having culinary delight. Which cities/towns have you visited that have surprised you with their food (and not just one restaurant). I'm not talking about the obvious, like SF, New Orleans, Chicago or Philadelphia, but other cities that when traveling to you don't think to look at a Zagat (because most of them don't even have one devoted to their city/town).

Where are these hidden gems in America? What about them made you celebrate with what they're doing with food.

Jacey, good question because it brings back memories of the food spots I've visited around the country over the last few years...In my case I was pleasantly surprised with Philly ( I saw your caveat in the post but had to mention it again); greater Boston for sure; Savannah, GA., and Charleston, SC; Atlanta had a few palate pleasers on my last visit; the Washington D.C. area now has greater variety, and though not a city, my vote goes to the entire State of Maine, where last summer's coastal road trip showed the culinary scene had remarkably improved from my last visit (and we're not just talking clam shacks)...

Columbus, Ohio. I've been there a few times for work and I've had some good chow worthy food there. Jenny's Ice Cream, good Vietnamese, good Indian, and good German. I went expecting nothing and now I don't mind having to go to Columbus. Now Lancaster, PA is an absolute wasteland! I go there very often on business and I dread it food wise.

A lot of people are surprised that Ottawa, Canada, has good food - mostly because it's a smallish government town. But hey, we may not have Mexican food (let's just say the Latino population isn't flocking to the area), but Ottawa rocks when it comes to Middle-Eastern, Indian and Vietnamese food.

Personally, I was surprised by Jersey City, where I lived for a while. Not only are there lots of small, mom & pop restaurants in a variety of cuisines (mostly Latin and Asian), but it's really vegetarian-friendly. In fact, one of my favourite places was a vegetarian café that made an awesome faux-meatball sub on real baguette.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has an astonishingly good food scene. When I first started traveling there 6-7 years ago, I had no idea I'd eat so well, so enjoyably (fantastically nice people, professional service, etc.) and with such great variety. It's still one of my top three food cities (right up there with New York and Paris).

Of course not. I was just seeing if anyone was paying attention. I figured anyone familiar with Dorset would get a chuckle, although an unincorporated town with more restaurant staff than residents...literally....is pretty impressive and rare.

Plus, I thought if I publicized the town nationally it might increase my odds of becoming Mayor next summer! I run just about every year.

Madison WI - I was really surprised with the whole overall food scene, but I guess since it's a college town, I shouldn't be. Lots of midwest food (sausage & cheese curds) but also decent greek, indian, etc. all at prices much better than I'm used to.

I second Kansas City - I visited there for the first time about a year ago and loved everything I had there, from the BBQ to more refined dining (1924 Main was very impressive and I can't wait to go back).

Interesting view on Houston, been there a few times but never really had a good experience except for BBQ and being able to get to Whataburger. So lowbrow was taken care of, finer dining was not. As someone in NYC, I'm curious where you went when you visited here that didn't impress you as much as places in Houston (but that's probably more appropriate for another thread!).